


This is How it Ends

by MaggieDerrick



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Friends to Enemies, One Shot, catradora, lovers in a dangerous time, makeout city
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 09:43:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20864177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaggieDerrick/pseuds/MaggieDerrick
Summary: Adora knows this needs to end - knows the twisted, toxic thing between her and Catra can't go on forever. The only question now is whether she's strong enough to end it.





	This is How it Ends

**Author's Note:**

> Angsty Catradora one-shot. Y’know, for funsies.
> 
> CWs: battle violence, blood, abuse mention

This can't be how it ends. 

Broken and weary from yet another fight that felt more like a violent dance. Both of us battered and bloodied; far too close to being evenly matched. If it weren't for She-Ra, there's a good chance I'd be the one splayed on the ground, staring up the blade of a sword aimed directly between my eyes. 

But it was Catra prone at my feet. Her chest heaved from exhaustion, but her expression was like stone. I wondered how she could be so stoic with the Sword of Protection's glinting steel hovering just a breath from her face. 

"Oh, Adora," she drawled. "How many times are we going to play this game? We both know you don't have the guts to end this." 

She used that voice—that husky growl she counted on to trip me up. 

Usually, it might work, but not this time. 

I considered what it would mean, to end this once and for all. The next move was horrifying in its simplicity: force my blade through the flesh and bone of a person who used to be my entire world. Make her bleed, watch her die. 

Is this what I was meant to do? 

With a flick of my wrist, I jabbed the tip of my blade beneath her jaw and pressed it just enough to draw a bead of blood. 

"Shut up." 

This got Catra's attention. Her aloofness faltered, her mismatched eyes narrowed. 

I stepped one foot across her and lowered to my knees, settling She-Ra's body—all toned muscle and dominating size—over her hips. I pinned her hands under my legs and crushed her deadly claws with my weight. She grunted, but that was all. 

She didn't stop me — didn't so much as squirm, or balk at the indignity of it all.

I tossed my sword aside, watching as her eyes tracked it, confused. It hit the stony ground with a clatter and skittered just out of our reach. 

Then she looked back at me. We held one another's gaze in a cloud of tense, uncertain silence. Catra was good, and she kept her expression cool and impassive. 

But I know her too well. I saw the tension in her brows, and I knew how badly she wanted to look away. So did I. Instead, we bore witness of one another.

A lopsided grin cut across Catra's face. "Well, this is an interesting develop–" 

My hands snapped around her throat. It happened so fast, even I was startled. 

First one then the other, I tightened my fists and pressed my fingers into her neck. It was like gripping the hilt of my sword—had she always been this small? I felt her muscles tighten beneath my palms, counted the vertebrae of her spine with my fingertips. 

If this had to end, this was what we deserved. Catra's end would come by my own hand, not the cold, unfeeling steel of a weapon. I owed her at least this much. 

She-Ra's grip could crush stone, and still, Catra did not fight. She didn't buck or flail—even her tail was still—and for some reason that made it worse. Anger swelled as I listened to her choke and struggle for breath. Leave it to Catra to make me suffer along with her right until the end. 

And then something changed. Her pulse lept against my palm. The stubborn defiance Catra normally wore like a mask flickered and fell, revealing pure and unbridled terror in its place. Her eyes widened and grew glassy, unfocused. Tears—be they from the trauma of near-death or something else—pooled on her lashes and tracked damp trails down the velvety fur on her face. 

I recognized that fear — I had seen it in her eyes before. It was a look usually reserved for the likes of Shadow Weaver and Hordak, in the nightmarish moments before yet another onslaught of abuse and unearned punishment. And now, here I was; just another in a long line of people who had handled Catra too roughly, shaking her faith down to the core. 

Me, the one who had promised to protect her. 

This can't be how it was meant to end. 

Shame gripped me like a vice. A scream rose from my depths, surfacing as a primal wail. I released my hands only to slam them into the earth on either side of Catra's head. While I trembled above her, she coughed and sputtered beneath me, gasping to draw breath through a crushed larynx. Without thinking, I brought my split knuckles to her face and stroked her cheek until her breathing steadied. 

Catra didn't flinch away from me the way I thought she might. Instead, she held my gaze with eyes filled with tears and betrayal. I wondered if I'd ever be done hurting her. 

"Coward," she hissed up at me. 

She wasn't wrong. If she was, this would have ended a long time ago. 

I opened my fist and dragged my fingertips along her jawline with something that might have been tenderness. I took her face in my hand, gripped it tightly. 

"Enough," I said. 

I tilted her head back, leaned my body over hers, and kissed her. 

There was no tenderness between us now; no softness in the way I crushed my lips to hers. Where the strength of my body was flagging, my mouth made up the difference. My kiss was hard and it was mean. I kissed her like I meant it. 

Because I did.

Catra's lips parted, either in surprise or on purpose, and my tongue took the opportunity. I dragged it across the dangerous points of her fangs like a dare: bite me. Hurt me back.

But she didn't. She kissed me. She met my force the same way she did in battle and it was just as exhilarating. I let go of her jaw and slid my hand back to her throat, this time gently. Then I trailed it lower. I smoothed my palm over her clavicle, her chest.

Now I could feel Catra struggling against me, but not to escape. There was something desperate in the way she arched her spine to rise into my touch. She gasped softly as I groped at her. My fingertips brushed against her uniform, grazing something hard and cool. Somewhere on the edge of my awareness, a single beep sounded. 

"Shit," Catra growled against my mouth before kissing me again. And then again. Each meeting of our lips was more urgent than the last. 

I slid my hand lower still. Down it traveled, tracing the slope of her ribs across the expanse of her tight stomach to where my own heat still pressed against her, trapping her under me.

The way she moaned was intoxicating. Her breath quickened, stealing air from between my lips and stoking the fire already raging dangerously at my core. I cupped the back of Catra's neck with my free hand, pulling her closer. I nipped at her lips, trailed kisses across her face, and down to her neck as she panted in my ear. When my mouth returned to hers, I could feel the gentle vibration of a purr radiating from her throat; a charming instinct that would have embarrassed her had either of us been slightly less drunk on the other. 

I slowed my pace, brought both my hands up to cradle her face between my palms. She-Ra's absurd mass of hair fell around us like a veil and bathed us in a world of golden light. I pressed my lips against hers again, but this time I let them linger. 

We were hovering face to face, settling into a strange new calm that manifested between us, when I heard a crash.

Branches snapped and footsteps thundered.

"Catra! Hang on, I'm coming for you!" Scorpia's voice boomed through the trees, far enough and yet still too close.

Our eyes snapped open. Tension flooded back into the fracture of space between us. I glanced down and noticed the soft pulsing light of the Force Captain badge pinned to Catra's chest. That was what I had felt earlier; I had triggered her tracking beacon.

My senses rushed back to me, first as a tingling in my limbs followed by a wave of adrenaline to my head. I barely heard Catra choke out my name as I lurched off her and fumbled to my feet. With a trembling hand, I scooped up my sword and then turned back to her.

She was right where I left her, propped up on her elbows and watching me with a mix of longing and resignation.

"Let me guess." Her voice was still hoarse. "This isn't because you like me."

I swallowed. I could still taste her on my tongue.

This could be how it ends, I thought. I could be okay with that. 

Scorpia's footfalls were closer now — dangerously so. I turned away, glancing back over my shoulder one last time.

"Goodbye, Catra." 

Yes, this is how it ends. Even if just for now.


End file.
